


i was just more like real life

by shudder



Category: Cats - Andrew Lloyd Webber
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Nightmares, Past Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, munkustrap is a principal at a high school but that's not important just context
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:09:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24905854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shudder/pseuds/shudder
Summary: Demeter has night terrors, but Munkustrap is there to calm her.
Relationships: Demeter/Munkustrap (Cats)
Kudos: 19
Collections: Angst and Hurt/Comfort Prompts





	i was just more like real life

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [angstandhcprompts](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/angstandhcprompts) collection. 



> if you see me writing this because i project onto demeter no you dont

The tossing is what wakes him up. Munkustrap is usually a heavy sleeper, he’d have to be with how much Deme talks in her sleep, but she was moving more than usual tonight. He has work in the morning, however, so he just pats her side a few times before laying his head back down. He’ll have to be on top of his game to put up with the teenage bullshit he’s going to be flung tomorrow, and although she was muttering, it seemed peaceful enough. “I love you, sweetheart,” he murmurs into his pillow, already sinking into a dream involving a train and a lost balloon. 

The next time he awakens, not much later, Demeter is thrashing again, more violently. He actually takes a fist to the face leaning over to check on her, and finds there are tears rushing down her face. She’s saying the name of her ex over and over again, begging him for something. It’s always terrifying seeing her like this. Shaking her body, he starts speaking to her, his voice as calm as he can make it with his heart and mind racing. “Deme, Deme, sweetheart. You’re safe. You’re safe.” He holds her, rocking them back and forth as much as he can from his position in bed next to her.

Demeter comes-to in the middle of a hitching sob, calling the ex’s name like it is a curse. It probably is. She wrestles herself free, and sits up. “It was awful. It was awful, Munk.” She starts sobbing again, and he sits up to hold her properly. “He said he was going to find me. It felt so real.” Her head falls into Munkustrap’s neck, and his hand raises to rest on it.

“It wasn’t, sweetheart. You’re here. You’re safe. He’s gone. I promise.” They rock back and forth again, the springs of the ancient mattress slightly creaking with the motion. “I love you.”

Sniffling, Deme looks up at him, still in the clutches of her past. “Please don’t let him take me.”

“No, no, no, no. He won’t. He can’t. He’s locked up.” Munkstrap couldn’t begin to imagine what she was going through right now, but he could listen. That’s what he always did when they woke up like this. Never pries, never asks for more than what she’s willing to give, but slowly he had learned about the ex, what he had done. He was proud and impressed and a hundred other words that Deme was still here, had kept going, and even more had continued to believe in love. She was stronger than him in every way.

“I don’t want to go back to sleep.” She eventually says, after the two had been sitting and swaying for a few minutes.

“Okay. Can I let go of you for a minute?” Holding her shoulders, examining her face. She nods and he kisses her forehead before getting up. 

The first thing he does is fetch the heated blanket, throws it over his shoulders to keep his hands free. The second is microwaving a mug of water. He doesn’t have the time to wait for the kettle, and he hopes his love won’t be able to tell the difference. Just before it beeps, he pulls the water out, drops in a bag of a calming herbal tea blend he’d bought at a local market. Demeter had said it smelled like love but ultimately decided it was too expensive; when she walked away he had bought it for her without a second thought. 

Once all his calming items are ready, he brings them back into the bedroom. They had a no drinks in bed rule, which she reminds him of as he hands her the tea. The only response it gets out of him is a quiet shushing, and then he wraps the blanket around her shoulders. “That’s better. You’re all cozy, like if ‘Goodnight Moon’ were a person.” 

She smiles softly. Humor was always how he distracted her in these times, and he could read her well enough to know it was appreciated. At some point a television gets turned on, but Munkustrap isn’t sure how it happened. They quietly watch some episode or another of an old sitcom, he doesn’t know it too well (or find it that funny, for that matter), but Demeter loves it. That’s all that matters to him in this moment. 

Before too long, Demeter has finished her tea and is nestled in the crook of his arm. “Thank you. I love you.”

Softly shushing her, he replies, “I didn’t do anything.” He pets her head, and before long she’s fallen back asleep. He carefully disentangles himself and turns the television off. 


End file.
